England made the perfect start to the first match of the NatWest Challenge at Trent Bridge, as Darren Gough extracted Virender Sehwag with his 12th ball of the match. Sehwag, as ever, was looking to get a move on, but in his haste, he played too early at a leg-stump delivery and chipped a simple catch to Michael Vaughan at mid-on.

At the other end, Steve Harmison launched his campaign with a typically hostile over, obtaining unsettling bounce from a good length. Sourav Ganguly gave the Indian fans something to cheer about by carving a Gough long-hop through point for four, but as VVS Laxman came out to join him, it was England in the ascendancy.

England won the toss and chose to bowl

England won the toss and chose to bowl first, as the NatWest Challenge got underway under clear skies at Trent Bridge. As expected, England have handed a debut to Glamorgan's allrounder, Alex Wharf, who was drafted into the squad after Kabir Ali was forced to withdraw with a stomach injury.

The NatWest Challenge should be a keen tussle between two teams that have forgotten how to win consistently in the limited-overs version of the game, each desperate to run into some semblance of form before the Champions Trophy. They have taken remarkably similar paths since the last World Cup, where India reached the final and England didn't even reach the Super Six – partly because they refused to travel to Zimbabwe.

India finished that tournament regarded as the only team capable of challenging Australia's continued dominance of the one-day game, although they had been beaten out of sight in both their games against the world champions. En route to that final, they had destroyed English hopes at Durban, with Ashish Nehra picking up 6 for 23 when he wasn't puking up bananas by the side of the pitch.

India's hopes of ending their run of poor form have been dented by the absence of Sachin Tendulkar, who has been forced out of this series with tennis elbow. He may yet return for the Champions Trophy, but that remains to be seen. In the meantime, much rests on Rahul Dravid in the middle-order. He has been handed the wicketkeeping gloves once again, despite reports that he would rather give them up.

Despite England suffering one of the dampest Augusts on record, September has begun gloriously, and a full day's play is in prospect.

Steve Harmison is having quite a year! hatrick now, though the decision to give balaji caught behind was doubtful as the ball appeared to hit the hand guard. Guess who gave that decision? Shepherd! I think his eyes are failing him at this stage of his life..In any case, India is not playing upto the mark. Dravid is going through a lean patch ( as unbelievable as it may sound ) and not having Tendulkar is a blow for any team, despite having one of the best batting order in the world today.

Even a top batting team like India and Australia play with six to seven full batsmen ( they have the luxury of having gilchrist and dravid at the top order, hence seven batsmen ). We on the other hand still continuing with five batsmen. You need at least six full batsmen with no.6 playing with high strike rate. We play, Rana and Mushfiq at 6. Neither are batsmen but bits and pieces all-rounder. Kapali , when he returns to form, is the ideal no.6 for us.